Nurturing the potential in everyone ST. JOHN’S C.E.PRIMARY SCHOOL MINUTES OF FULL GOVERNING BOARD MEETING 29.03.23 Present: Jessica Addis, Mark Bowring (Chair), Lizzie Culverhouse, Astrid Goodwin - Joint Vice-Chair, Kerry Geaney, John Henley, Michaela Luckett, Jo Miller - Joint vice-chair, John Neville, Dan Turvey (Head Teacher), Kate Whitehead, Becky Wheaton. In attendance - Jenny Stiff - DHT, David Robson - SBM Governance Professional - Jan Davies ‘Agenda No. Discussions and outcome ‘Action No. 1. (Opening Prayer - JN opened the meeting with a Prayer 2. ‘Apologies for absence - All Governors in attendance 3. Declaration of business interests - None declared against any item on the Agenda 4, Membership - The LA vacancy remained ongoing. ML would be leaving the School at the end of Term 6. KG’s term of office as a Staff Governor ended on the 9" July 2023 so another staff governor election would need to be arranged. Minutes of last FGB meeting - These were unanimously approved by the Board and signed by the Chair. All matters arising from the meeting had been actioned. Head Teacher’s Report - The detailed report had been circulated to Governors prior to the meeting. In terms of pupil progress the SLT had not looked at the data collected yet. PPMs would take place immediately after the Easter break and would be shared with Governors. Was staff turnover this year higher than normal and should Governors be worried that Teachers were leaving the profession? - Yes Governors should be concerned and it was recommended that Governors conduct exit interviews with those members of staff who would like one. What was the fallout from the recent Teacher strikes? - A lot of Teachers had taken part in the strikes with 18 outon the 3" day and 7 or 8 outon the final day. Teachers opting to Strike would not be paid for strike days. It had always been the Head Teacher’s aim to keep the School open rather than, like some other schools, closing in part or totally. Going forward it was the understanding that the NEU were balloting its members with regard to the latest offer from the Government and feedback was that this would be rejected and provisional strike dates for April would be set. W Page 1 of 7The additional workload for those staff in Schoolhad been immense as striking Teachers did not have to leave any work set or advise the HT that they would be striking. This had caused some tensions between some staff although this had passed and staff had worked as a team when Ofsted visited the School last week. Governors learned from ML that there had been a picket line outside of the School gates which had received some support from parents who had taken the opportunity to go and talk to those on the picket line to understand why they were striking. For St John’s Teachers the strike wasn’t about pay but about ensuring Childrens’ future due to so many choosing to leave the profession. In budgetary terms any pay rise would not be funded by the Government so would impact on already overloaded school budgets thus adversely affecting children’s learning. What could Governors do if anything - It was agreed that the Chair would write to Greg Clark outlining the concerns raised above. A copy of the letter would then be circulated to all the local Chairs of Governors with the suggestion that they may also wish to state their concerns in a letter to Greg Clark. The Pupil Premium and Enrichment documents, which outlined the percentage of PP children accessing extra-curricular clubs and enrichment activities across the whole school respectively, had been put together for the recent Ofsted inspection and would prove useful for monitoring purposes. There had been a disparity between enrichment activities listed across the different year groups and particularly in Year 2. What was the reason for this and what was being done to ensure all year groups were able to access a good range of enrichment. The pandemic had been instrumental in cutting back on enrichment activities such as school trips for example last year’s Year 5s were unable to take part in the PGL trip. The School was now focusing on enrichment pathways across the School which would include visits to London. KG advised that Year 2 were planning a summer trip. Would there be an opportunity to think about equality and diversity when planning trips in the light of the feedback from Ofsted? - Yes, very much so. ‘Combined SIP/SEF - The updated combined SIP/SEF had been circulated to Governors prior to the meeting - Governors noted that Season 2 milestones, with the exception of conceptual teaching in all classrooms and evaluation of year 1 provision and priorities had either been met in full or in the progress of being met. Season 2 milestones for Governance had not been rag rated. The SIP would change considerably following the recent Ofsted inspection to take into account equality and diversity and to re- emphasise reading. Page 2 of 7‘Monitoring reports - All circulated to Governors prior to the meeting. Data monitoring - The focus of the visit related to the SIP priority To improve the teacher’s use of formative assessment. and to improve writing moderation. It had been encouraging to see how INSIGHT, the School’s tracking tool, was being used. Whole class feedback appeared to be embedded and working well. English & Maths - This monitoring report was in progress and would be tabled at the next FGB Safeguarding - This was a supplementary report following the recent mini audit focus of online learning. The Safeguarding Governor identified there was value in confirming the work that the school undertook with regard to online safety. This report outlined her findings. SEND/PP - The monitoring visit focused on understanding how these pupils were being supported within the School and ensuring that the SEND/PP budgets were being well used. SEND numbers had increased in recent months and parents were continually reminded how to find out whether they qualified to access Pupil Premium funding. Attendance of SEND/PP children had improved quite substantially due in part to a lot of input from the Family & Attendance Support Officer who had been in direct communication with parents. SIAMS - The focus of the visit was to understand how Christianity was taught, receiving an update on the Leading Lights scheme and children’s involvement in collective worship. - Governors had been impressed about how in-depth their conversations had been with the RE subject lead. The RE learning pathway had been updated for the EYFS and was now on the Schoolwebsite. A Year 6 class assembly had been observed. The assembly showed how engaged children were with their learning. The Children were respectful and encouraging of their peers. HES - The monitoring report was in progress and would be tabled at the next FGB. Early Years - The focus of the visit was to continue to develop the Reception Curriculum learning pathways in line with new Statutory EYFS 2021. The Early Years lead had made a considerable amount of progress with learning pathways and embedding them within the EY setting. It was noted too that the EY lead had been “incredible” in providing support to the Early Years team. Monitoring priorities up until end of Term 5 - - English & Maths - EC/JH - Finance - end of year outturn/new 3YP - H&S - JH It was agreed that the next Data Monitoring visit be carried over to Term 6. Page 3 of 7 ms10 Finance - 9 month monitoring feedback from SFS - Nothing of concern to note SFVS - A copy of the SFVS had been circulated to Governors prior to the meeting. It had been compiled by a member of the Governor Finance Monitoring pair in conjunction with the School's Finance Manager. The checklist asked a number of questions around six areas of Resource Management. All answers showed the School was compliant which was backed up with evidence. There were no areas where remedial action needed to be taken. Governors unanimously approved the SFVS which was signed by the Chair of Governors. Renewal of Cleaning Contract - The SBM had tabled a document outlining a proposal to end the School’s Cleaning Contract with Solo with effect from the 31% March 2023 and award the Cleaning Contract to Steadfast, a company used by many local Schools who had procured a contract with Steadfast through B4Schools, a provider of technical and professional non-teaching services to Schools. Over the last 12 months or so the standard of Cleaning provided by Solo had declined. Due to the Company operating out of Cardiff it had not always been possible to speak face to face with an area supervisor. Moving to Steadfast would be a positive step for the School. As the cost of the contract would be more than £50K approval of the Governing Board would be required. The Finance Governors supported the proposal. Did Steadfast have a local Area Supervisor? - Yes, they would meet. regularly with the School for review meetings. Cleaning staff would be TUPEd over if they wished to remain with the School. There would be Key Performance Indicators (KPI) which would have to be adhered to. Governors voted unanimously to award the School’s Cleaning Contract to Steadfast with effect from the 1° April 2023 Renewal of Energy Contract - The School had secured its energy contract for a number of years through KCC until 3 years ago when they terminated the contract and used a Broker to go to the open market. The Schoothad secured a 3 year fixed price contract with SSE and Drax which would finish in December 2023. With fluctuating markets the School wished to secure pricing at rates they were Prepared to pay with effect from November/December 2023 so as to set a budget with some certainty. Using existing annual consumption, quotations (dated 28 February 2023) were sought through the use of a Broker Taking the figures provided to Governors in the paper put forward to Governors FGB approval was sought for the Head Teacher and School Business Manager to agree new energy contracts of up to 3 years as, soonas possible which would commence once the current fixed-price contracts ended, acknowledging that the indicative prices provided would change. ED Page 4 of 7Would the School receive any funding for energy costs - No, these costs would be met from the School’s revenue budget. Governors unanimously approved the proposal as outlined above. 7 Governor Skills Audit - All Governors had completed the NGA Skills Audit and the GP had collated the results. Both the NGA dashboard and a summary report had been circulated to Governors prior to the meeting. The 6 skills audit areas overall scores were either a 3 or 4 indicating that the GB was well placed to understand and meet its strategic roles and responsibilities. It was pointed out to Governors that there would be a lot of change of membership over the next 6 months which would affect the dynamics of the GB. There would be a new Head Teacher in post and a need to appoint a new Co-opted Governor, Parent Governor and Staff Governor. There remained too a vacancy for an LA Governor. 2 Chair/Vice-Chair actions - The Chair reported that he, together with a Panel of Governors had been involved in the work necessary to build a microsite to advertise the vacancy for a new Head Teacher. The advert had gone live with a closing date for applications of 14" April. Shortlisting would take place on the 17% April with formal interviews taking place on 27% & 28th. There would then need to be an EGM to ratify the new appointment. It was agreed that this meeting could be virtual. Governors would be advised of timings once shortlisting had taken place. Had there been any interest shown in the advert? - Yes, 2 interested parties had been shown around the School by the DHT. A letter of concern had been received from support staff about the timing of their pay increase to move from September to April. Finance Governors had agreed that this was the right thing to do. The LA had this week announced that they were going to make an offer of a maximum of £2,000 to support staff to be implemented from the 1° April 2023. This move sat outside the School’s normal cycle but the LA’s recommendation was that Schools implement the pay rise from April which had been approved by both the Finance Governors and Pay Committee. 3 Preparation for Ofsted - Governors agreed that the Key document “Questions Ofsted might ask Governors” had proved useful during last week’s Inspection. The Governors who had met with the Inspectors were asked to list the questions they had been asked by the Inspector and send these to JM to be added to GovernorHub in the Ofsted grab filé. 4 Policies - The following policies had been reviewed and were all approved by the FGB - Accessibility Policy = Admission Policy - Bereavement Policy = Finance Policy - FOI Guide = _ FOI Publication Scheme Page Sof 7 Mp= GDPR & Data Protection Policy = GDPR Parent Privacy notice = GDPR Workforce Privacy notice - Relationships Education & RSE Policy The following policies had been reviewed and updated by the School but did not need FGB approval = CCTV Policy - Food Policy - Employment of Ex offenders Policy All Policies would be added to GovernorHub. 5 Governor training - JN would be undertaking Governor Induction Training through TEP. The GP had attended Clerks County Briefing and a copy of the presentation stides shared with Governors. Two main actions had arisen: - Governors to attend during SATs week to ensure the process was carried out correctly. JM and JN volunteered. Keiran Bradbeer would be asked to send governors the timetable. - Governors are required to undertake Prevent Training every 2 years. A link to the free training appeared on the FGB Agenda. Governors were asked to complete this training prior to the next | 6 FGB meeting and to send their Certificates to the GP, JM and the HT. 16 ‘AOB - Website Audit - An audit of the school’s website had taken place in February and results shared with the FGB. Some policies on the website were out of date but had been reviewed and approved by the FGB at this meeting. 7 Confidential items - None 18 Date of next meeting - Tuesday 23" May 2023 5.30pm Actions arising from this meeting Action | Action arising Lead Outcome No Governor 1 Staff Governor election to be arranged HT & To be completed Governance Professional z Exit interviews to be offered to those staff | Chair To be progressed leaving the school at the end of Term 6 if required 3 Write to Greg Clark re Teachers Strike and | Chair Letter sent. GC circulate copy of letter to other Chairs of to visit school Governors 4 Arrange a virtual EGM regarding appointment | Governance | Not required of new HT Professional 5 Governorsto compilea list of questions that [Relevant [ica claw were asked by the Ofsted Inspectorand send | Governors | Ses‘) to JM - 6 ‘All Governors to undertake Prevent Training | All In progress by the next FGB and send their Certificates | Governors to JM, HT and GP LP Page 6 of 7Signed: IM Date: Z2f bs 7: 2p Chair of Governors Page 7 of 7